Repurposing Old Candles

How's it going everyone? I hope you are having a good start to the week.

Do you like candles? I use candles often -- for fragrance, to set a mood, or to get into a certain headspace (ex. meditation, writing, prayer).

Over the years, I've amassed these jars with candle wax at the bottom. To bring new life to the jars, I've learned to make my own candles.

But what about the candle wax? Surely, there must be a way to transform it from blah to TADA!

I turned the wax into candle shavings (using an old vegetable peeler or grater). I put the candle shavings into a plastic container and labelled it accordingly so that no one at home mistakes it for food.

For this candle, I used a plastic knife to pry the wax from the sides of the jar. 

In a previous post, I wrote about wax seals as a finishing touch for envelopes. Special sealing wax sticks are typically used but why not use the candle wax shavings? Why buy when we can D-I-Y? 

I dipped my sealing wax spoon in the jar of candle shavings and lit the tea light.  

I positioned the sealing wax spoon a few inches above the flame and let the wax melt slowly.

The candle shavings fully melted but I parked the spoon on top of the burner to allow the wax to cool a bit.

Then I poured the wax off the spoon and onto a waxy surface so it's easy to peel off (ex. wax paper, parchment paper, or the backing of sticker paper). When the wax is slightly cooler, the shape of the wax is easier to control (forms into a circle instead of spreading out in different directions).

I pressed the wax stamp on top of the melted wax and let it sit there for a few minutes.

Once the wax stamp is removed, the rose pattern is imprinted on the wax...TADA!

For a neater look, I trimmed off the wax that collected around it. The final result is thinner and more transparent compared to using wax sealing sticks. But I'm pleased that I was able to repurpose the candle shavings that would've just been thrown away.

That's how I turned old candles from blah to TADA!

I'll keep experimenting and I'll show you how I use these wax seals in my crafty projects. Meanwhile, please subscribe here if you want blah to TADA! ideas delivered to your inbox.